If you think it can happen - It sure can

Dan Mosley

Member
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1,169
Location
Palm Springs, Ca
Day off today and i was in the garage with my older son spraying some laquer on a few bowls. One of us hit the work bench a bit to hard and a jar with finish in it (turp/oil/varnish) and a bowl that was sitting on it fell to the ground and broke all over. The bowl was busted into several pc's also and the liquid mess was all over the concrete floor. i swept up the glass and the bowl and my son grabbed a old towel and wiped up the floor. I put a bit of paint thinner on the concrete and he wiped it up with the same old towel.
I had to go inside to take a phone call and came back out and he had straightened up well so we started on the next project of fixing some tile work in the house.
Couple hours later my son had told me that he saw the garbage can outside (sitting outside in the driveway) smoking pretty good and turned the hose on it and put out whatever was burning. I went out to look and the towel had spontaneously ignited. (see pic below).
I would have thought that it would never happen to me because im careful not to leave anything laying around with finish on it like rags and such....i usaually take the rags i use for finish and gloves and soak them in wather and tie them up and disgard them........
What went wrong then ????? I simply forgot about the old towel he was using.....got distracted........ and he didnt know any better............but he does now:eek:
 

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Dan, I have seen it more than once. When I ever use any kind of drying oils or mineral spirits on a rag I either store them in an air tight container or throw them out in the middle of the yard till they dry. The latter is my typical procedure. I am glad it all work out OK and lesson learned. Situations like this are typically the best learning experience.

Alan
 
I was using some BLO/Tung Oil/wipe on poly (maloof Finish) on a paper towel a while back and laid it out on the drive after I was done. Later on I smelled something burning and lo and behold it was smolodering. Fortunatly I took the precautions to isolate it from the shop.

:doh:
 
I had the same thing happen finishing my first piece I ever turned. The paper towel that fell on the floor ignited. Now it is a air tight metal can with lid. Glad it was ok Dan.
 
If you think it can happen-It sure can

WOW,glad it didn,t go off in the shop after you left for the day.As we know things like that can happen when you least expect it,anyway glad there was no serious damage and no one was hurt.looks like the man upstairs was lookin over you today.
Ken
 
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